Guides

You stop saying um by replacing it with a silent pause, not by trying harder. Count your fillers, find where they land, and practice pausing there.

A filler word holds your place while you plan: um, uh, like, you know, I mean, basically, actually, literally, so, right, plus hedges like I think.

A few ums will not cost you a job, but a pattern of fillers and hedges reads as uncertainty. Prepare your openings, pause on purpose, and drop the hedges.

For presentations and calls, aim for about 110 to 150 words per minute. Everyday English runs near 150 wpm; conversation is faster, lectures slower.

Rule of thumb: talk your fair share of the time, more if you are presenting, far less if you called the meeting to gather input. Measure it to know.

Practice out loud, record it, score one thing per run (fillers, pace, or an opening), fix it, and run again. Short spaced sessions beat one long one.